John Wesley’s 300th Birthday300 Years After His Birth, His Legacy Lives OnThis year, thousands of clergy, scholars and lay Christians
are marking the 300th anniversary of the birth of one of the most
influential figures in the history of Christianity. Conferences,
worship services, spiritual pilgrimages, theatrical performances
and other events commemorate the life and ministry of John Wesley,
the founder of Methodism.

It took a combination of
historic drawings and living models with features similar
to those of John Wesley to sculpt his bust for the SPU
Library. Artist John Powers at Red Dog Foundry in Chimicum,
Washington,
cast the founder of
Methodism in bronze.

Today, Wesley — born in 1703 in the small
town of Epworth in northeastern England — is considered the spiritual
parent of a worldwide community of churches, including Seattle Pacific University’s founding denomination, the Free Methodist Church of
North America.

Among the significant events of the 18th century
often singled out by historians are the Industrial Revolution, the
French Revolution
and John Wesley’s Methodist Revival. Over a period of 50 years, Wesley gave voice
and vision to a powerful renewal movement within the Anglican Church, traveling
as many as 250,000 miles on horseback to preach the gospel to anyone who would
listen in England and abroad. His followers, called Methodists, agreed to avoid
evil, do good and diligently pursue a maturing relationship with God.

Venues
for celebration of the Wesley tercentennial are many and diverse, such as the
University of Manchester, Canterbury Cathedral
and Oxford’s Lincoln College in England; the Bahamas Wesleyan Fellowship in Nassau,
Bahamas; and Atlanta’s Emory University. Ironically, John Wesley himself may
have blanched at the uproar. As SPU Professor Randy Maddox writes in the
essay, "Reclaiming Holistic Salvation," Wesley, far from being on a mission
of
self-acclaim,
sought
the
renewal
of all creation after the image of God. His legacy, says Maddox, is meaningful
to anyone who seeks holiness of heart and life.